Hot Tickets: Is He Dead?, Rufus Wainwright, Liars

Is He Dead?, the obscure and unproduced 1898 comedy by Mark Twain, has been dusted off, spiffed up, and put on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre. It premiered earlier this week, and is garnering buzz simply for the playwright’s name on the bill. Playbill tells us it “has none of the darkness of Twain’s death-spiked classic, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This is a pure comedy—a fictional, farcical Paris-set yarn about a young painter, the real-life Jean-François Millet, who fakes his death to score fame and fortune.”

Sometimes, it still surprises us that Henry Rollins was once one of our hardcore heroes but now has transformed into a talking head on silly VH1 shows. But actually, we’ve been able to rise above it (ha!) because he’s always been smart and funny, he’s just doing it on a different stage. That muscle-ripped fireball of a man will bring his spoken-word tour, dubbed “Provoked: An Evening of Quintessentially American Opinionated Editorializing and Storytelling” to Warsaw on Feb. 27 and 28. [On sale: Friday, Dec. 14 at noon]

For something completely different, noise-punk Liars and buzz-worthy No Age will play at Warsaw on the same night. They just announced their national tour and it sounds like it’s going to be a noise-pop-rock dance party made in heaven. Check out No Age’s video for “Boy Void” for some time-speed fun off their Fat Cat album Weirdo Rippers. The duo is currently working on a new album for Sup Pop, expected for release some time next spring. [On sale: Saturday, Dec. 15 at 10 a.m.]

Get your learn on before going to the Chris Brown, Bow Wow and Soulja Boy concert at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 17. You’ll want to look fresh to death in your shades while you’re doing the Soulja Boy dance. For instructional help and some giggles, check outthesevideos of kids doing the choreographed moves to our local DJ friend Cousin Cole’s techno remix of “Crank Dat,” which has been played on Hot 97. Big things! [On sale: Saturday, Dec. 15 at 10 a.m.]